Transparently present existing and pending reponses

[thedod]

There should be a way to browse all petitions eligible for response sorted by how long these responses are overdue. There should also be a way to browse responses that were given (if I understand correctly, the only way to get to a response is if from the page of the petition that requested it), and also enable sorting them by how long they took to answer. This information can make the petition system's effect on the White House measurable - especially if it's also made available in machine readable form (see #44).

[GPHemsley]

You can access the full list of responses here: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/responses

Unfortunately, it seems like it may be sorted in ascending chronological order, with no way to change the sort order (only to filter by topic), so it's not especially useful. Better sorting capabilities are needed.

[thedod]

Sorry for delay (was travelling).

There are many things missing at /responses:

• A response is not associated with the petition it's responding to, so it's out of context
• No indication about overdue responses (petitions that deserve a response and didn't get one) and how long they're overdue
• Same for responses that were given. No indication how long they were overdue before the response arrived
• [as in petition signatures] there's no API or machine-readable output. The only way to get bulk information is via scraping (shaky, unless you have a robust internet connection - which I don't).

Until there's a simple way to answer what the administration was supposed to do and didn't (i.e. overdue responses in the present - as well as the past), the system only provides an illusion of transparency :(